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With an M.D., Ph.D. and MBA, Edgar Staren said he just doesn’t know when to quit. He always wanted to become a doctor, and spent several years as a cancer surgeon in Chicago before earning his Ph.D. in immunology and micro­biology to become more involved in research. He threw in an MBA a few years later for good measure — after he realized he needed more management knowledge.

Before Staren became president and CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Western Regional Medical Center last year, the facility did not participate in many clinical trials. Instead, the focus was on clinical expertise to serve patients.

But now, under his leadership, the hospital is expanding into clinical trials, with an emphasis on personalized medicine when it comes to cancer treatments. Within the past two months, CTCA has added eight clinical trials.

Staren’s desire and passion to help cancer patients is personal. At 46, he was diagnosed with an aggressive case of sarcoma in his leg.

He had felt a lump growing, but ignored it. He was chairman of the surgery department and medical director of the Medical College of Ohio Cancer Institute in Toledo, Ohio, so he was pretty busy paying attention to other details.

“Sometimes doctors are the worst patients,” he said. “I didn’t have it biopsied or assessed as soon as I should have.”

When he learned of his cancer, he remembers sitting on his front lawn, sobbing with his wife, Lisa.

His partner performed the surgery, resectioning the muscles on the middle portion of his leg, followed by six weeks of radiation. It took another four months of physical therapy before he could walk again and six months before he was back in clinical practice.

“Seven years later, I am able to look at that personal tragedy as a personal blessing,” he said. “It reaffirmed to me the importance and correctness of me being in the career I was in. I have a much better understanding of what our patients go through and the fears they have and how it affects all aspects of your life.”

With his training as a medical doctor and researcher, as well as his management training, Staren said he is in a position to improve the care provided to cancer patients.

His bones were weakened during the radiation treatment, which led to a recent fracture in his leg.

“It’s an ongoing reminder that once you go through cancer, that it does impact you both physically and emotionally in a way that’s ongoing,” he said. “But again, that’s not a bad thing. There are 11 million cancer survivors in this country right now. It’s important for us as health care professionals to recognize that.”

Most recent job and proudest moment there: Chief medical officer for the CTCA enterprise. Helped lead implementation of systemwide electronic health record aimed at enhancing patients’ quality of care.